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Color/Appearance: Heartwood is reddish brown, sapwood is yellowish white.
Grain/Texture: Straight grained with medium texture.
Endgrain: Medium-large resin canals, numerous and evenly distributed, mostly solitary; earlywood to latewood transition fairly abrupt, color contrast can vary depending on growth ring spacing; tracheid diameter medium-large.
Rot Resistance: The heartwood is rated as moderate to low in decay resistance.
Workability: Jeffrey pine works well with both hand and machine tools. Glues and finishes well.
Odor: Jeffrey Pine has a faint, vanilla or apple-like odor while being worked.
Allergies/Toxicity: Working with pine has been reported to cause allergic skin reactions and/or asthma-like symptoms in some people. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicityand Wood Dust Safetyfor more information.
Pricing/Availability: The wood of Jeffrey Pine is anatomically indistinguishable from that of Ponderosa Pine, and no commercial distinction is made between the lumber of the two species (both are simply sold as Ponderosa Pine). It should be widely available as construction lumber for a modest price. Some Ponderosa Pine is mixed with Lodgepole Pineand sold together as construction lumber under the stamp “PP/LP”.
Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, and is reported by the IUCN as being a species of least concern.
Common Uses: Veneer, plywood, sheathing, subflooring, boxes, crates, posts/poles, interior trim, cabinetry, and construction lumber.
Comments: Named in honor of John Jeffrey, a Scottish botanist who documented the species in 1852. Jeffrey Pine was initially classified as just a variety of Ponderosa Pine, but it was later discovered to be an entirely distinct species.
Jeffrey Pine has a unique resin chemistry that is unlike other pine species, which also give a pleasing scent, which is variously described as being similar to vanilla, apple, buttersctoch, and/or lemon scents. (Interestingly, pure heptane can be distilled from the resin of Jeffrey Pine, which is so explosive that it was selected as the zero point on the octane rating scale.)
Although Jeffrey Pine is technically classified as a yellow (hard) pine, it shares many characteristics with white (soft) pines, having a considerably lower density than the yellow pine species found in the eastern United States.
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